Bionic Bull Promotions returned to South Philly High School Saturday night with an outstanding performance by North Philly’s Gabriel “King” Rosado, 11-3 (7), who stopped the durable Dominican Ariel “Iron” Espinal, 6-8-2 (2), fighting out of Brooklyn, at the end of the 5th of a scheduled 6 round middleweight main event Saturday night!

In the other 6 round bout from the Kensington section of North Philly Dennis Hasson, 8-0 (2) remained unbeaten shutting out Atlantic City’s Johnny Hayes, 6-5-1 (4), over 6 rounds in a super middleweight bout.

“I plan to bring Rosado back next month (May 9th) along with my son Brian (“Bionic Bull” Cohen) in a pair of 8 round fights,” said Ivan Cohen. “I’m bringing in Robbie “Taz-Mexican Devil” Tovar, 15-4-1 (5) who was supposed to fight Brian in January. Matchmaker Nick Tiberi and I will get together about Rosado’s opponent,” he added.

Rosado was coming off two television appearances to come back to Philly and re-gain his roots after almost a year away. As early as the 1st round Rosado rocked the shorter Espinal who immediately pushed Rosado to the canvas as he came in to follow-up. It was a smart move on Espinal’s part. Near the end of the round Rosado missed and had his back toward Espinal and took a shot to the kidney. Referee Blair Talmadge never warned Espinal. You knew it was going to be a down and dirty fight by the invader. Rosado had moved up several pounds in weight from his normal light middleweight division. For Espinal it was his lowest weight since 2002. He had loss to both Hasson and unbeaten Germantown section of Philly Farah Ennis by decision as a super middleweight. Espinal was throwing looping overhand rights that would catch Rosado on occasion, but the pin point accuracy of Rosado got through the defense of Espinal while on the ropes. Being in camp last year with Bernard Hopkins and “Sugar” Shane Mosley obviously had helped Rosado. He was forced to do that after upsetting previously unbeaten James Moore, of Ireland/New York, when he couldn’t get a fight.

In the 5th round Espinal was hit with 14 unanswered punches that should have caused action by his corner or the referee. At the end of the 5th round the ring physician stopped the onslaught. “I tried too hard to please my hometown fans at the start,” said Rosado. “He took too much punishment for his own good,” he added.

Hanson, the grand nephew of former light heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran, used a jab of his own to keep Hayes at bay throughout the first 3 rounds. In the 4th round he started to go to the body and broke Hayes down by the end of the 5th round after scoring a flash knockdown earlier in the round. In the 6th round Hayes did all he could do to just survive by holding on most of the round. Hasson dug left uppercuts into the ribcage of Hayes who was a beaten man. The judges all agreed with scores of 60-53.

The show started off with a bang as Travis “The Animal” Thompson, 3-5-1 (2), of suburban Pottstown, and Philly’s Gustavo Dailey, 3-5 (1) had an all out war from the opening bell for a solid 3 minutes of non stop action! There was little to pick from between the two fighters. In the 2nd round Dailey pinned Thompson on the ropes and knocked his head up in the air several times causing referee Blair Talmadge to stop the bout at 0:34 of the 2nd round. Thompson being the warrior he is complained about the stoppage but he wasn’t fighting back enough though he threw the last punch. Dailey had a 4 pound weight advantage in this 4 round lightweight bout.

There’s something about putting in both boxers with losing records that brings out the best of one of them. As in the first bout, Lamont Barnes, 2-2 (1), and Zeferino Albino, 3-9-2 (1), both Philly cruiser weights, had a good first round. In the 2nd round Barnes started finding the range dropping Albino with a left hook. Up at 8, Albino was rushed by Barnes and dropped by a straight right hand landing face first on the canvas. To his credit Albino was game in getting up before being dropped a third time by a chopping right hand to the head causing referee Hurley McCall to stop it at 2:09 of the 2nd round.

Philly’s “Big” John Mercurio, 2-0 (2), came in at #257 to his opponent Derrick Allen’s, 1-5 (1), 205, of Wilson, North Carolina. A surprise was the promoter who was advised the opponent was orthodox but came out as a southpaw. The well built Allen was coming off a 1st round knockout win in February and had some pop on his punch but when tying up the much larger Mercurio he was taking too many body shots. In the 2nd round Mercurio had Allen caught in the corner landing a number of haymakers before causing a deep cut on his opponents left eyebrow from a wide right hand that caused referee Talmadge to put a stop at 1:10 of the 2nd round. Mercurio brings in quite a number of fans and they let him know they were there supporting him throughout.

North Philly’s “Lightning” Lonnie Jackson, Jr., 1-0 (0), was busy losing a couple of needed pounds the night before and it showed midway through a 4 round super featherweight bout with Niger’s Soumana Nandou Aboulaye, 0-5 (0), out of New York City. Jackson started fast switching from orthodox to southpaw taking the 1st round. In the 2nd round a left hook dropped Jackson as he got his feet tangled. Jackson came back to drop his opponent. By the 3rd round the fight was getting out of hand as Jackson scored two more knockdowns only to have his opponent come back and knock him down. In the 4th round Jackson took a knee more from exhaustion than his opponent’s punches. In all there were 6 official knockdowns in the fight and referee McCall had lost control by the mid point. The fight itself was not pretty, but the fans seemed to enjoy it. Jackson comes from a fighting family, where his uncle and father (who assisted Fred Jenkins) both boxed. The scoring was also scattered as Carol Polis had it 37-35 for Aboulaye, while Dewey LaRosa had it 39-36 and Joe Pasquale 38-37 both for Jackson. This writer saw it 38-38.

As reported earlier Cohen will be back at South Philly High School on May 9th in his third promotion in less than four months. The grand stand tickets are $25 and not a bad seat in the house. Quite a bargain now a day’s for fight fans.